Monday, September 06, 2004

Diplomacy

Bill Clinton handled the North Korean situation with skill and prudence. Instead of using inflamatory language and threats, he used diplomacy. Clinton was prepared to use force (and nearly did) if diplomacy failed. But instead a crisis was averted. No, it isn't easy to diplomaticly solve the problem on the Korean Peninsula quickly. But it is easy to quickly create a crisis if diplomacy is abandoned. Clearly, the current President prefers confrontation over diplomacy. He has already evidenced this in Iraq. Force needs to be used only as a last resort. Heavy handed application of force on the Korean Peninsula will only result in the destruction of Seoul and the deaths of many millions of South Koreans. It will be interesting to see how the current crisis, created with the "axis of evil" State of the Union Speech, will continue to unfold.

1 comment:

Reese Davidson said...

"Bill Clinton handled the North Korean situation with skill and prudence. Instead of using inflamatory language and threats, he used diplomacy."

And look where we are today. North Korea might have several nuclear weapons that could kill millions of Japanese, Americans, or South Koreans in a few minutes. If Clinton had handled the situation then, rather than temporary appeasement (which has been proven never to work), we wouldn't be dealing with the problem today.......Not that I blame him, look at the flak Bush is taking for taking preemptive action.

"Heavy handed application of force on the Korean Peninsula will only result in the destruction of Seoul and the deaths of many millions of South Koreans."

True. I don't think heavy handed force is an option anymore.....If they do have nukes, we would never risk attacking them.....Same thing in Iran, we would probably attack their reactor before they built nukes, like Israel did to Iraq in the 80s.